


The End of All Things

by hyoidbone



Category: The Newsroom (US TV)
Genre: F/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-23
Updated: 2013-12-01
Packaged: 2017-12-30 06:48:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1015455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hyoidbone/pseuds/hyoidbone
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Will and Mac think their apartment is being broken into.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Casual Affair

**Author's Note:**

> This was prompted to me at thenewsroomprompts Tumblrblog. It was also requested to be continued.

“Billy?” Mac called, putting a hand on his bare chest and shaking him a little. Will groaned but didn’t move. “Wake up!” she hissed through a whisper, trying to get his attention.

“What?” he said, turning to face her, putting an arm over her.

“I think someone’s in the apartment,” she told him and he quickly snapped to attention. His blond hair was askew as he sat up, sweeping his legs to the side of the bed. Mackenzie went silent and Will tried to listen, hearing the faint play of the lock of their door. 

“Stay here,” he commanded and she sat up, pulling the blanket to her shoulders. Will slipped on some shorts and grabbed the baseball bat in the corner of the room. He gripped the handle as he left the bedroom.

In the meantime, Mackenzie shifted off the bed and pulled a t-shirt over her quickly and a pair of pajama bottoms and snuck up behind him. She remained a few feet back so he didn’t notice her.

The front door swept open and immediately Will flipped on a nearby light, illuminating the room and causing him to squint. Mackenzie peered forward.

“Shit,” the familiar voice mumbled, lifting a hand to shield her eyes. She looked at Will that wielded the bat in the air as if ready to use it and immediately she squeaked and backed up. 

“Sloan?” he called, dropping his hand with the bat. 

She looked at him bleary eyed and he noticed she had been crying. Mackenzie came up behind him.

“What are you doing here?” she asked her friend, stepping in front of Will. 

“I was trying to be… be quiet so I didn’t wake you,” she said, shutting their door behind her and locking it. She waved the key up that Mac had given her. Will have his fiancée a look of questioning and she shrugged it off, putting a hand on his side to explain later. 

Sloan leaned back against the door and rubbed her eyes. Mackenzie approached and noticed the smell of alcohol on her and was a little surprised it was that strong.

“What’s wrong?” she asked. She turned a little and waved Will off who obediently walked back into the bedroom more confused than he had been when he woke.

When he was gone, Mackenzie put an arm around her and led her to the couch.

“I think Don is cheating on me,” she admitted and Mackenzie gawked, sitting down next to her.


	2. Slow Night, So Long

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sloan spills her guts to Mackenzie.

Mackenzie put an arm around Sloan’s shoulder to hold her up. Her eyes were red, she smelled of alcohol, and she was worried she wouldn’t be able to stand much longer. Will managed to disappear into the bedroom, confused and lost, and would deal with it later. 

Carefully, Mac led the woman to the couch and helped her sit. Sloan plopped right down without much effort and leaned against the cushions, her head falling back against it, and she closed her eyes. She was painfully exhausted and didn’t want to deal with this new revelation she faced and he was sure she couldn’t go back to her own apartment where it was lonely. 

“I didn’t want to wake you,” she murmured softly, rolling her head to look for Mackenzie. She wasn’t next to her on the couch.

“It’s okay,” she called from the kitchen as she fumbled around for a few things. Sloan leaned forward a little to figure out what she was doing but she couldn’t see here from her position. “I gave you a key to this place for a reason,” she commented and realized she hadn’t informed Will about it.

“I was just going to fall asleep on the couch. I’m sorry,” she cried, her face falling into her hands as she tried to hold herself together.

A few minutes of silence passed and Mackenzie returned with a cup of hot tea and a small tray with a few items to add to it. She sat it down on the coffee table and all Sloan could do was stare at it. Mac twisted her lips in concern as she ran a hand over her friend’s back. At the same time, she began to add honey to the tea, milk, and stirred it, then offered it up to the intoxicated woman. 

Sloan took the teacup in both hands, encircling it with her palm while she soaked up the warmth. Carefully she drank the warm liquid and let it burn down her throat. They both sat there in silence for a long moment while Sloan settled and Mackenzie was patient, making herself comfortable next to her. She tugged a throw blanket down from the back of the couch and half draped her friend as well as herself. 

“He’s been distant. When we are together; at home, at work, any time. I know it’s busy at the office with everything going on, the election coming up, but he’s never ignored me like this.”

Sloan took a long sip of the tea and glanced at Mackenzie, only to be returned with a stare of patience. 

“The last week or so, he hasn’t come over to my place and any time I offer to go over there, it’s turned down. He’s polite about it but never offers an explanation. Mac, I can’t go through this again. Not with Don,” she explained and turned sideways on the couch to stare at her friend. “Michael did this to me and I didn’t see it before. Don and I haven’t been perfect by any means but I thought… I thought he was the one. For the last several months all I could see of my future was him and everything it held but now it’s fuzzy when I try to think about it and I just can’t do it.”

Tears trailed down her face at that point and Mackenzie leaned forward to put a hand on her knee. 

“You don’t know for certain what’s going on. Have you talked to him about it?”

“No,” she responded and sat the cup down on the table. Talking to him about it seemed far too logical a solution. Besides, what would she get out of it?

“Do you think Don would do that to you?”

“No,” she responded again and ran a hand over her face. Sloan leaned back against the corner of the armrest and back of the couch. She realized how drunk and exhausted she was and it fueled every bit of frustration for her. “But if he is, god Mac, I’ll kill him.”

The corner of Mac’s lips pulled up slightly but she shoved it off. Sloan’s passion seeped through the cracks and she noticed how beautiful she was when she felt so strongly about something. She didn’t doubt for a minute Sloan wouldn’t hurt Don if he did something to her.

“You need to talk to him about it. You can’t let it get into the relationship. If he’s hurting you, do something, if something else is going on…” she trailed off and found her gaze turning to the bedroom. She admitted to Will her crime with Brian and he hated her for it; for her action of cheating, for telling him. She didn’t know which was worse and she only did what she thought was right by their relationship and it blew up in her face. Years later, it had turned into this and she was happy but she didn’t know how to give advice to Sloan about her relationship with Don.

Sloan sighed and ran a hand through her disheveled hair before she shifted, moving from the couch.

“I need to go,” she confessed and Mackenzie shot a glance up to her before standing quickly.

“What?”

“I need to go talk to him.”

“It’s three in the morning!”

“So?”

Mackenzie stood there awkwardly as Sloan backed away.

“Please be careful, okay?” she offered, knowing she wasn’t going to be able to stop her and she couldn’t force her to stay.

Sloan nodded, hugged Mackenzie tight, and departed from the apartment.

Mackenzie stood there for a few more minutes, awkwardly trying to decide what to do. She searched for her phone and picked it up, half thinking to call Don and figure some things out before Sloan got there but she put the phone down and decided to let it play out on its own. 

Eventually, she returned to the bedroom where Will had fallen asleep again. She stood for a moment, watching him in his slumber, and carefully slid her way back into the sheets of their bed. She didn’t fall asleep and instead laid there quietly and rolled her life back and forth into her head.


	3. Crack the Shutters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sloan confronts Don.

Despite how drunk Sloan had been about an hour ago, the trip between Mac and Will’s apartment had sobered her up a little.  She had gone from feeling sorry for herself to anger and it caused her vision to go blurry as she tried the key to the door only to realize it was the wrong one.  A minute later, she was inside.

“Keefer!” she shouted at the same time she slammed the door with everything she had. 

Seven seconds later, she saw a light flicker on down the hallway that led to the bedroom and a half asleep Don emerged out, confused and startled.

“The fuck?” he shouted down the hallway, putting a hand against the wall for support, but eventually making his way toward Sloan.  He rubbed his free hand against his face, trying to clear his foggy mind.  “It’s almost four in the morning,” he groaned.  He had come to a stop a few feet from the woman and it was then he saw the anger in her expression.  “Sloan?”

“Fuck you, Don,” she slurred.  The adrenaline was starting to leave her body and her drunkenness return.  She was losing the anger she had coming through the door and back to the pity she felt in Will’s apartment. 

“Are you _drunk_?”

“That doesn’t matter.”

“No?” he scoffed but soon realized that was a mistake as he watched Sloan’s hands clench into little balls that he was sure were meant for him, but he didn’t understand why.

“No.  Are you cheating on me?”

Don’s mouth opened to speak but he suddenly stepped back.  Grogginess was gone with sudden clarity as he tried to come up with an answer.

“Answer me!”

“Of course not,” he offered as calmly as possibly but it did little to soothe the suddenly insane woman.  It was enough, at least, to throw her off track.  He couldn’t believe she expected a yes from him.

“Then what the hell is your problem?  I haven’t been able get five words out of you in the last two weeks.”

Again, Don found himself silent but he backed up to return to his bedroom.

“Answer me!” she shouted again, quickly following behind him, but Don didn’t stop until he moved into the bedroom.  “I try to come over after work or invite you over and you don’t want any part of it?” she began to ramble, stepping through the doorway of his bedroom.  She had lost track of Don but saw him rummaging through one of his drawers and returning to face her.

“Look.  I’m sorry I haven’t really been… around lately but I just needed a little time to get some shit together,” he began and watched her freeze when she saw the black box sitting in his palm. 

“Don.”

He couldn’t help the grin that spread across her face as he watched the anger slowly remove itself from her expression.  “This isn’t… exactly how I had this in mind,” he began, prying open the box to present the ring to her.  “But, would you move in with me?”

Sloan stared at the ring far longer than she should have, then glanced up at him in disbelief.

“I had plans for next week, I was going to surprise you, but I don’t want you to think I would do something like that to you.  I love you,” he offered.  He was starting to get nervous in her silence, his grin fading, and he felt the urge to keep talking so he could bring her back to reality.

She didn’t speak and instead rushed into his arms, pressing her lips against his and pulling him close.

“Is that a yes?”

“If you ever cheat on me, I will kill you,” she told him, repeating words she told Mackenzie an hour ago.  “You drive me crazy, you son of a bitch.”

Don plucked the engagement ring from the box and slid it across her ring finger, placing a kiss on her lips one more time.


End file.
